The Gardener’s Botanical (PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS) by Ross Bayton is a delight for anyone who has ever been curious about plant names. It is beautifully bound and presented, and its gorgeous old botanical prints from the Royal Horticultural Society on every page make it a sheer pleasure to leaf through.
In The Business of Botanicals (Chelsea Green Publishing), author and anthropologist Ann Armbrecht embarks on a quest to understand and reveal the processes that bring botanical products from farms to the consumer.
Last year I found a copy of The Closing Circle, Nature, Man & Technology by ecologist Barry Commoner. I started rereading it and was stunned to find in the first chapter, even before he states the Four Laws of Ecology, Commoner discusses the fundamental interaction of nutrients, humus, soil microbes, plant health, and climate! What is amazing is the book was published in 1971!!
Reviewed by Margot Taylor
You’ve got to love people who can find, understand, and interpret patterns and relationships. Judith Schwartz is this type of person as I’ve learned reading her new book, The Reindeer Chronicles. An engaging and skilled storyteller, Judith lays out an ecological rehabilitation process for our broken ecosystems, communities, and financial foundations. And she shows us how the power of inspiration can lift the human spirit, open the heart, and restore our American “can do” attitude.
Written by Kim Eierman, Published by Quarry Books, (2020)
Reviewed by Georgia Harris
I first heard about Kim Eierman’s book The Pollinator Victory Garden at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown. While Eierman could not have predicted that the release of her book would coincide with a pandemic, the timing is particularly appropriate as more people are finding time to work in and enjoy their yards and gardens.
Written by Carol Garcie, Princeton University Press, 2020
Reviewed by Maureen Sundberg
Carol Gracie’s admiration and affection for the flowers she researches and photographs is evident on every page of her new book Summer Wildflowers of the Northeast. Those familiar with the thoughtfully detailed life histories of plants in Gracie’s Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast will recognize in this companion volume her wide-ranging mix of the natural history of species and spectacular photography.
Reviewed by Curtis Jirsa
Wild Seed is an annual magazine published by Wild Seed Project, a Maine-based nonprofit that advocates for using more native plants in our landscapes. This year’s volume, like its predecessors, is a compelling and richly-illustrated collaboration between an impressive group of scholars, horticultural professionals, local artists, and other experts and enthusiasts.
Written by Doug Tallamy; Published by Timber Press February 2020
Reviewed by Angela Tanner
As the world hunkers down in the midst of a pandemic, Doug Tallamy’s latest book Nature’s Best Hope offers, as the title suggest, hope, and we all need a little of that. Drawing topics from his earlier book Bringing Nature Home, Tallamy explains, with examples and statistics, what is happening to the ecological systems around us, and why we should care.
Written by Bryan O’Hara; Published by Chelsea Green Publishing, 2020
Reviewed by ML Altobelli
You may think a book by this title is not for the ecological landscape professional, but the author’s understanding of the world of soils and plants is every bit as useful whether you are growing tomatoes or lady slipper orchids.
by Jennifer Jewell
Women have been sowers of seeds and tenders of seedlings for a very, very long time. For much of that time these women didn’t have the time or the means to document their history. There is no telling the whole story of women making their lives with plants or women broadening the field of plant knowledge and practice. I can’t even superficially acknowledge all the women in plants who’ve cultivated this territory before us, except to say the compost-rich soil they left behind is what germinated the seeds that grew the vibrant women I’m writing about today.
Protecting Pollinators by Jodi Helmer is a must-read for anyone interested in learning more about the myriad small and amazing creatures so crucial to our survival as a species. Reading the book is like having a dear friend share with you all the fascinating things she’s learned about pollinators during her journey to becoming a successful beekeeper, then placing all her resources at your fingertips.
Written by Nancy J. Hayden and John P. Hayden
Published by Chelsea Green Publishing, 2019
Reviewed by Lucy Birkett
Farming on the Wild Side chronicles, in a most delightful and humble way, the progression of a small organic farm in northern Vermont. An entomologist and an environmental engineer make nurturing biodiversity a top priority as they transform an old dairy farm into a productive, thriving, diversified farm teeming with life. The entire book is interspersed with moments of poignant philosophical wisdom, and ecology is everywhere.
